Molly Dawson | UK Youth
Molly Dawson is a young leader in the non-profit sector with a talent for rocking the boat (as nicely as she can).
Molly is a researcher at charity UK Youth, where she keeps new information about the youth sector at her colleagues’ fingertips, amplifies the voices of young people and asks a lot of big questions. Outside of her day job she is Co-Director of Muslim Women Connect, a non-profit that advocates for and supports Muslim women to overcome personal and structural barriers to career success and fulfilment.
In November 2021 she joined the Finance Innovation Lab’s Trustee in Training programme where she is shadowing existing trustees and learning in-depth about charity governance, operations and systems change.
Molly is driven by the values of justice, courage and community. Her current focus is being braver - through rock climbing, public speaking and even occasionally engaging in small talk.
Hannah John | Black Cultural Archives
I have a passion for innovation, knowledge and community. From studying law as an undergraduate with a passion for justice, whilst cultivating leadership and interpersonal skills in hospitality, I was able to combine the two in the charity sector.
Having volunteered and worked as a youth worker, mentor, with refugees, at a hospice and more, my purpose is to use my gifts as acts of service. I have built a portfolio in project management, strategy and change management. With a masters in business administration and project management qualifications, but an interest in human behaviour I work collaboratively, respecting the experience of team members and stakeholders, learning from colleagues and rallying teams around common purpose. I build relationships and make hard but fair decisions. As a leader I believe in the phrase nothing about us without us and acknowledging the past to create a better present, whilst building foundations for a greater future.
My generalist skillset allows me to adapt to various industries and take the role of translator, bringing communities, staff levels, stakeholders and generations on to common ground.
Chloe Jones | Autism Together
I have very proudly worked for the charity Autism Together for the past 11 years; although I have been connected to the charity all my life.
My mother has worked here as a house manager for a residential setting since i was around 6 months old. I grew up often visiting the residential homes, attending events and having the people we support visit our home and the farm my dad worked at. My mother is a huge role model in my life and the reason why i often say 'it was in my blood that i was going to work for Autism Together'.
I first starting working here in the Admin department, which gave me a real feel for the whole organisation and i was able to work across services. From here i moved to the Children and Family service due to my passion in childcare (10 years service award for Girlguiding and running a Brownie unit). Here i developed a number of services and found a real fascination to working with teenagers and young people; i developed a Befriending Service for 14 - 18 year olds with autism and acted as their mentor to help them develop their own independence skills and personal care. I also provided support to parents and carers of young people with autism, developing a newsletter that was sent out to over 2,000 people weekly, themed coffee mornings and workshops and also attended local paediatric appointments to be there for families during reviews and at diagnosis appointments.
I then moved on to the Fundraising department where i have worked for the last 4 years and feel it is a role i was destined to be in. I am very proud of this charity and the services it provides and feel i am a great advocate to share its message. I will often publicly speak at various events and conferences and present to schools and businesses where needed to share autism awareness and encourage people to fundraise on behalf of autistic people.
Apart from work i like to be heavily involved in my local community; having recently joined my daughters school Parent Teacher Association to utilise my skills in fundraising and events. I was also a member of GirlGuiding for over 10 years and ran a Brownie unit for young girls, something which i hope to get back involved with soon.
Just last year i lost my best friend and my sister (who was also a Support Worker at Autism Together). She died very suddenly from a heart infection and from that day i took in my 2.5 year old niece, who with my partner have now formally adopted. My sister is my biggest inspiration and i vow to live my life in the way she did and would have; being kind and empathic to others, helping wherever i can with whatever i can, finding the positives in everything, living life to the full and taking many pictures along the way!
Sheekeba Nasimi | Afghanistan and Central Asian Association
Sheekeba Nasimi's family fled Afghanistan in 1999 out of fear of prosecution at the hands of the Taliban.
They arrived in the UK in the back of a refridgerated container. One year after her family arrived, Sheekeba was born in Guys Hospital. Sheekeba's family chose Britain because it 'offers equal opportunities'. In 2001 Sheekeba's family established the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA), a charity dedicated to improving the lives of Afghans and all refugees in London. Sheekeba, 21, is now studying at the University of Law. Sheekeba is also helping her father at the charity. She leads the legal clinic, in partnership with local firms, to provide advice and support on housing, employment, litigations and immigration cases. She coordinates legal advice services at the ACAA and works with colleagues, volunteers and external partners to ensure the legal advice clinic runs effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, she is working in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Job Centre in Hounslow to support refugees, BAME individuals and women get into employment and start their own businesses.
As the crisis in Afghanistan unfolded last year, Sheekeba played a fundamental role in helping the ACAA support hundreds of Afghans in the UK to evacuate their families. She was in contact with the Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Common Wealth office daily to support the evacuation of British Nationals stuck in Afghanistan. This was a very difficult time for Sheekeba whilst her family were also stuck in Afghanistan. She woke early everyday to assist the hundreds of Afghans lined up outside of the ACAA office every morning.
Sheekeba has one year remaining of her degree at the University of Law. She plans to continue supporting and assisting refugees settling in the UK.
Jenna Rainey | The Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Began my career journey whilst undertaking my BA (Hons) Creative Writing and Publishing, where I undertook voluntary and paid roles in publishing houses, aiding with creative workshops at Arts Council funded events and helped the marketing team at Bath Festivals.
During this time I was also elected in as Media and Events Officer for Bath Spa Students Union, giving me my first taste for charity management, budgeting and creative varied communications and events to reach a diverse range of audiences. I also had the chance to line-manage three sub-managers and a range of volunteers during this time.
After graduation I found a calling to work more closely with young people in an advisory setting and spent the next three years as Graduate Employability Advisor, helping to facilitate 1:1, group and distance support for students and alumni. I simultaneously held down another part-time role as a Widening Participation Ambassador, helping to facilitate classroom workshops across primary, secondary and college pupils, encouraging students to aspire to their greatest potential despite barriers of under-representation. Both these role were immensely rewarding, but I had never lost my love for writing and so I began a further Masters’ degree and another part-time role at a wedding magazine to keep my skills in check.
By the time I was unfortunately made redundant I had already shown my resilience, successfully continuing with my fledging freelance writing career and gaining my first book commission. It was in this time of flux that I decided to make a move into the charity and not-for-profit sector and I haven’t looked back since. I began my first role with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the South West Regional Office the week we went into national lockdown, having gained my own Gold Award from the charity less than a year prior. I’d already begun volunteering and a paid position seemed logical and somehow right - it turned out to be a perfect fit and I have continued to flourish during my time with the organisation ever since. I have now managed to combine my passion for communication with my pursuit of benefitting young people’s futures and I wouldn’t have it any other way, proud to be helping to guide the next generation through a wave of challenges during difficult times for us all.
Xanthe Blain | NatWest
Xanthe approaches her personal and professional life with huge positivity and enthusiasm, seeking and creating opportunities to maximise contribution to colleagues, the organisation and society.
She is results-driven, demonstrated by achieving a First and straight A*s as a first-generation university student who financially supported her studies with part-time jobs.
Her banking career started in the secondary debt market. She has since helped project manage a team to deliver a pioneering app that will support small business customers with tracking their carbon footprints. In Coutts, she supported clients with real estate, corporate advisory and private equity services. She managed a book of 85 clients with £50m+ property purchases in the pipeline. Now, she is working as a Leveraged & Acquisitions Finance analyst. Alongside her work, she is studying for Advanced Diploma in Banking and Leadership in a Digital Age with the Chartered Banker Institute.
She is passionate about helping develop others, having co-led the Innovation & Development Council for 800 graduates, overseeing delivery of 70+ events and orchestrated a pioneering climate summit. She founded a competition to give youth colleagues a platform to voice their visions of a better future, which was endorsed by Alison Rose and the Global Ethical Finance Initiative. The finalists were able to present to an international audience of 900 attendees. She has also created a podcast series with C-Suite, entrepreneurs and Directors which aims to share knowledge from experienced colleagues and individuals to those starting their careers. She was nominated for a Tech Community Star award for connecting colleagues during the pandemic with a ‘coffee roulette’ initiative, which paired individuals to make new connections across the department. She also leads a LeanIn circle to support a group of 12 female colleagues with personal and professional development.
She is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, having been one of seven Innovation Fellows at the University of Warwick. In this role, she supported student entrepreneurs and provided opportunities that sought to develop creativity, innovation, design thinking and entrepreneurship on campus. Since joining the bank, she has a continued interest in innovation, specifically in supporting diverse business founders. She has volunteered at Investment Round Tables with female entrepreneurs and worked towards the launch of the UK Enterprise Fund which supports investment into diverse, growth businesses across the UK. She volunteered for 10 weeks to support an entrepreneur with their sustainable greeting card company, LoopLoop and she participated and won an Innovation & Development Hackathon, innovating an employee mobility app.
Outside of work, she plays netball and captains the Coutts Netball team. She has volunteered with the Princes Trust to deliver workshops and be a CV mentor; SmartWorks to support their charity sales and stock management and The Conservation Volunteers, helping plant trees. She has fundraised money doing a charity abseil for Samaritans. This year, she hopes to partake in a charity week sailing with visually impaired people.
She has been selected to be part of bank wide Talent Academy and has roles as a Sustainability Champion, Women in Business Champion and Future Change Shaper in the Bank.
Rugiyya Gahramanli | London Stock Exchange Group
Have you heard of 2011 romcom ‘From Prada to Nada’? Well, I did the opposite: I went from Nada to Prada, in figurative sense.
And I am writing the below, - how ever hard it might be to admit our pasts sometimes, - so that if there are young girls (or boys) out there, who find themselves in similar situations, they can read this and have confidence that they can win, too.
I was born and raised in Azerbaijan in a financially disadvantaged family, which was surely challenging, but only motivated me to study and work hard towards my future. Being on top of my class, I managed to secure a seat in one of the most prestigious universities in Baku. When in my second year, I decided to apply to government’s study abroad programme, which, if successful, would pay towards my degree and livelihood abroad. With little hope there was for a young girl who has never been abroad before for financial reasons and against the tough competition among thousands of students for such a dream opportunity, there I was a few months later with an unconditional offer from King’s College London (KCL), top 17th university in the world at the time, and, following numerous interviews, a confirmation of the state’s funding programme. In September 2014, at the age of 20, with only a USD100 bill in my pocket, I arrived in London. Alone. And this is how my journey began.
While at KCL, I became a class president of c. 250 students for the final two consecutive years; secured a summer internship with London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in my penultimate year and received an offer to come back for a full-time job after graduation, - easy to type now, but these milestones were quite tough to achieve, and I am not even mentioning the cultural shock and the stress of adjustment! In short four years at LSEG, I built a strong reputation within Capital Markets and with other teams, progressed through the career ladder as a result of my hard work and dedication, and started building my network in the industry.
I guess, it is true that we carry our history wherever we go. Hence, it should come as no surprise that my dissertation at KCL was dedicated to emerging economies; that when at LSEG, I volunteered for MyBigCareer and secured seats for five high school graduates from London’s deprived neighbourhoods on UCAS clearing day; that I joined my ex-groupmate’s initiative, DiverCity Mentorship scheme, to help penultimate and final year students secure jobs in the financial industry in London, which I am still part of. Another phenomenon that I observed was that, although my personal experience toughened me up, there were so many women around me who were still struggling with gender inequality. This triggered my interest in attending seminars on gender topics in the industry and joining different women’s networks. Currently, I am a Women Inspired Network’s (WIN) UK Committee member, where I actively help spread the word on diversity and inclusion.
So, if you are reading this, dear twenty-something rising star, be sure that hard work always pays off; and when you do win, please help others win, too.
Hema Sood | Morgan Stanley
Hema graduated with a Bachelor’s in Engineering at City University of London. She began her career in 2007 at Cable and Wireless as part of the Engineering Graduate Scheme, where she held several roles.
She worked in multiple teams such as Voice Engineering, IP & Data, Submarine Systems Engineering delivering projects abroad in Cancun, Mexico for over 6 months as a project coordinator. Hema completed her Prince2 qualifications and started as a project manager in 2009 working in Core Infrastructure and then moved teams to be an IT Software Project manager in 2010.
Hema joined Sky in 2011 as a Broadband and Networks Project Manager. She was responsible for projects spanning Core, Peering and Transit and Subsea cable builds delivering many high-profile projects such as building the Core and Edge network for Sky Mobile and delivery of the European Video Multicast WAN solution for Formula 1 and PGA Golf Tour which had hard deadlines depending on the launch dates. In 2016 Hema joined Facebook as a Sourcing Manager for EMEA, where she managed the IP Transit Growth for all EMEA POP sites. She created and implemented automated reporting for the global team to monitor overutilized connections with vendors across EMEA POPs, to ensure upgrades are planned and delivered before being at risk and impacting users she also developed. Hema joined Playtech as a Customer Project Manager in 2017 with Ladbrokes as her customer for UK and Belgium, deploying enhancements on their websites, and other mobile platforms ahead of the 2018 football world cup. The
company launched a new Playtech Open Platform (POP) and Ladbrokes were one of the first customers and Hema successfully deployed this in their network.
Hema joined Morgan Stanley in 2018. She spent her first two years as a Technical Project Manager within Enterprise Network Services. In 2020 she moved to the Enterprise Security Platform department as a Global Service Delivery Manager. She is leading the Web Security squad and the Tooling squad through an agile transformation, where she is responsible for the overall delivery of the squad processes, performance improvement, and client communications while also managing project risks.
Hema is also passionate about giving back and committing to diversity and inclusion she is a great leader in these initiatives where she takes part in many of them such as Women In Technology, Net South Asia Diversity Network, Mentoring programs for young kids from underprivileged backgrounds, departmental diversity groups as well as helping with apprenticeship/graduate program interviews and assessment centres.
Outside of work, Hema enjoys going to the gym regularly, drawing animals and still life, has a passion for travelling and experiencing new cultures, being an avid reader, she also runs a book club. She is very close with her family and friends and loves spending time with them. Hema is a supporter of Great Ormond Street hospital where she has raised money by participating in walks and the London 10k, she now also volunteers at the hospital at the Arts and Crafts centre.
Aneesah Sarwar | Barclays
Aneesah is a Strategy Assistant Vice President at Barclays driving strategy at one of the UK’s biggest retail banks which inherently touches a substantial part of society.
Before this, Aneesah graduated with a BSc in Economics from the University of Warwick, where she also led the 2019 Warwick Economics Summit. She then completed a graduate programme at Barclays, gaining experience in strategic transformation, product management, performance optimisation, data and digital.
She is passionate about helping disadvantaged or overlooked groups realise and reach their full potential. After winning Barclays’ Social Intrapreneurship Challenge, Aneesah channelled this passion to co-found and run Her Own Boss, a podcast and community with over 2000 members designed to help young women overcome career barriers and build confidence. Her Own Boss provides inspirational role models, a strong community and practical advice to help women get ahead in their careers and is sponsored by Barclays Eagle Labs in support of Barclays’ commitment to the Investing in Women Code. In 2021, Her Own Boss won a Barclays Citizenship and Diversity Award for enhancing skills and employment.
Additionally, Aneesah forms part of the leadership team for Inspire, which is Barclays’ new Employee Resource Group (colleague network) representing those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, amplifying their voices and growing allyship by driving awareness, education and career development support. Specialising in communications at Inspire, Aneesah is building and providing strong mechanisms for Inspire to improve social mobility and socioeconomic inclusion in the workforce and across society.
Repeatedly fuelled by her passion to help people realise and reach their full potential, Aneesah also set up and now jointly runs a new support system for the graduates and apprentices in her business area. This includes a welcome induction, regular fireside chats with senior leaders, mentoring and buddy matches, socials and monthly support sessions.
Ashwitha Bingumalla | Instinet
Ash is a Part-Time Masters in Finance student at London Business School and also a Merit Scholar.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Imperial College London and is currently working as a Business Analyst/Product Owner at Instinet in London. Due to the growing regulatory environment shaping the financial industry, technology is often sought as the best solution for firms to stay competitive. Ash’s undergraduate studies in Computer Science have helped her tackle and increase automation in the algorithmic trading space at Credit Suisse and now in her current role at Instinet. She is the sole EU Execution Management System Owner, facing off to the Front Office and gathering / expanding upon all requirements. As the EU lead, she then represents these requirements with the global development team following up as required and ensuring testing and seamless implementation. In addition to her Business Analyst role, Ash is a Product Owner for the in-house trading and analytics applications at Instinet. She has worked very hard and her significant contributions have helped to revolutionise the analytics space to a leading platform provider. Ash also has some more operational duties, namely producing trading performance reports for clients and directly dealing with their queries.
Ash’s other areas of interest include being a passionate member and ambassador of the STEM community. She has organised lessons at disadvantaged schools and encouraged many students to pursue STEM degrees. At London Business School, she is involved with the Women in Business Club, the Impact Investing Club as well as being an Executive Committee Member of India Club and a Student Ambassador for the school.